


The Game for the Galaxy - Episode XI: Dark Princess

by FilmOSophie



Category: Star Wars
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23575390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FilmOSophie/pseuds/FilmOSophie
Summary: Leia confesses to Rey that her own dark side has been instrumental in Han’s death
Kudos: 1





	The Game for the Galaxy - Episode XI: Dark Princess

‘He killed Han’ she said decisively.  
‘I know. I helped him’ replied Leia.  
Her answer was the last thing Rey expected to hear and Leia was quick to catch the stir it caused.  
‘You are surprised’ she said ‘and yet you know well that all comes and goes through the grace of the everlasting Force. We are mere instruments of the mighty will which governs our existence.’  
‘The Force does not deprive us of free will.’  
‘I am not implying that it does. Our decisions are our own. The Force only guides them. The more you know about the Force, the more conscious your choices will be, whether you serve the darkness or the light. I was aware where I was sending Han and yet I entreated him to go ahead to his doom.‘  
‘You couldn’t have foretold what was going to happen! Even I - even Finn, who knows the First Order better than any of us - we were there, we were watching... and we couldn’t tell what would follow. Kylo Ren is a master of deceit and he is the only one to blame for Han’s demise.’  
‘And yet, you abandoned Luke to follow this deceitful character, whose crimes you personally witnessed. Why did you do it?’  
Rey sighted heavily. She has thought a lot about it, yet the answer still eluded her.  
‘I was blinded. I told myself I was going for Ben’ she rejoined.  
Leia smiled bitterly.  
‘Loosing Ben to the darkness was the worse that happened to me in this life of hardships. And I have previously seen my home being destroyed by my own father. I have witnessed atrocities beyond comprehension...’  
Her eyes turned watery as she remembered. Rey took hold of her hand. Her gesture was born of more than compassion - she was able to feel what Leia was feeling. And it broke her heart.  
‘When Han left shortly after we lost our son, it was a blow I haven’t expected. It’s true that I had tried to find solace in politics and I ignored his growing restlessness. That restlessness has always been there throughout our marriage. I am sure Ben felt it too. Sometimes I wonder if it hasn’t contributed to his choice.’  
‘Han was a good man’, Rey hurried in his defense.  
‘I wouldn’t have loved him if he wasn’t’, smiled Leia. ‘He was a good man, but family life cut him off from what he loved most. When Ben abandoned us for Snoke, the tie that has kept him by my side for all those years was broken. Released of this string, he found no reason to stay and soon returned to his long denied freedom.’  
‘He loved you, I am sure!’  
‘I do not doubt it, Rey. Otherwise he wouldn’t have listened to my pleas to go in search of our son. My entreaties would have been useless against his doubts, if he didn’t loved me still. If he didn’t trust me. It was this misplaced trust that cost him his life.’  
Hearing this, Rey did not know what to think. Leia’s foggy feelings provided no clearance for her own confusion. She tried with words where her Force abilities failed to make light:  
‘You speak as if you willingly deceived him...’  
‘When I saw Han on Tako Dana on the day of your abduction it was the first time I‘d see him in years. You can imagine how happy I was. The general was happy. But the princess, that side of me which I fought so hard to suppress - unsuccessfully, she beheld the man that abandoned her in distress. And an excruciating feeling of resent balanced my overwhelming enthusiasm. I pull back my shoulders and assumed military dignity, but in truth I was trying hard to shake off or at least disguise that glimpse of grudge that passed like a fleeting shadow. In that I was successful. Han suspected nothing. But I was aware of it as I beseeched him to bring Ben back. To this day I wonder if it wasn’t this very shadow that sealed his destiny.’


End file.
